Mohammad Sahil Saeed (born 9 November 2004) is a British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 boy of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

i heritage, born in Oldham

Oldham

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...

, who was kidnapped in the evening of 4 March 2010 in Jhelum

Jhelum

Jhelum or Jehlum may refer to:* Jhelum, a city in Pakistan on the banks of the Jhelum River* Jhelum District, an administrative division in Punjab, Pakistan surrounding the city of Jhelum...

, Pakistan. According to Saeed's father Raja Saeed, four armed men took Saeed along with cash and jewellery from their house shortly before they were planning to fly back to Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, where the family have lived for seven years. Later the kidnappers demanded a ransom

Ransom

Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...

 equivalent to £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

100,000. Saeed and his father were visiting family in Pakistan, although Saeed's mother and two younger sisters were at home in Shaw and Crompton

Shaw and Crompton

Shaw and Crompton is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, north of Oldham, southeast of Rochdale, and to the northeast of the city of Manchester...

.

Investigation

It was believed that someone in the family may have been involved in the kidnapping, however, Saeed's father rejected this. Six suspects were arrested during the raids carried out by Pakistani police on that night including a taxi driver who was hired to take Sahil Saeed and his father Raja Saeed to the airport for their return flight to the United Kingdom. There was speculation that corrupt police officers may have been involved in the incident.

The law enforcement operation to find the captors after Saeed's release took place across four countries (Pakistan, the United Kingdom, France and Spain) and involved monitoring the suspects' telephones.

Reaction

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani

Yousaf Raza Gillani

Yousuf Raza Gilani is the current prime minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He was nominated as Prime Minister by the PPP, with the support of its coalition partners, Pakistan Muslim League , Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, on 22 March 2008...

 telephoned the parents of the boy on the 6 March 2010 to assure them that the government would make an all out effort to rescue the child. while Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik

Rehman Malik

27 April 2009 He has been the interior adviser since 27 March 2008.Senator A. Rehman Malik is a Pakistani politician, member of the Senate of Pakistan, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan under the Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani administration. His Second name is Shetan Malik and he...

 said the incident was "humiliating" after visiting the family. Pakistan's High Commissioner in Britain, Wajid Hassan, said that he believed the culprits could be associated with some of the boy's own relatives and that detectives were "looking at the possibility of a sort of inside job" as there had been a perception that the family was wealthy. Phil Woolas

Phil Woolas

Philip James Woolas was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth from his election in 1997 to 2010. He was the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, as well as being the Minister of State for the Treasury...

, the Immigration Minister and MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth

Oldham East and Saddleworth

Oldham East and Saddleworth is a county constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

, said that "this is the number one priority for the Foreign Office in Pakistan but the focus is still on the police operation". The spokesman of Foreign & Commonwealth Office issued a statement saying 'We call on whoever is holding Sahil to return him to his family.'

Release

On 11 March 2010, Wajid Hasan, Pakistan’s High Commissioner in the UK, said Saeed had been found, however, Pakistani officials would not confirm this. Hasan later dismissed the earlier reports but said he believed the abduction was linked to a family dispute and he was optimistic that the boy would be released soon.

On 16 March 2010, Saeed was freed after a ransom was paid. Kidnappers in Spain ordered his father to pay money in Pakistani rupee

Pakistani rupee

The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...

s in France. He returned to Oldham on 18 March 2010.

Just over a week later on 25 March 2010, two men were arrested in Pakistan, on the suspicion of kidnapping Saeed. The local police in Pakistan said that they had arrested the men in the same city where the boy was kidnapped. Weapons, explosives and belongings stolen from the Saeed family home were also recovered. Regional police chief Aslam Tareen said the kidnapping was opportunistic and that "No family member was involved in this case. Reports about a family link in the kidnapping were wrong".